Strong Rookie Race by Binder, Dovizioso Tries his Best at Home

29-05-2022

Strong Rookie Race by Binder, Dovizioso Tries his Best at Home

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team’s Darryn Binder was back on the rookies podium, while Andrea Dovizioso did damage limitation at the Italian GP.

The WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team leaves the eighth round of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship with mixed feelings. While Darryn Binder showed a good performance at the Italian Grand Prix, Andrea Dovizioso could only try to get the best out of his home race.

After he enjoyed riding at the Mugello Circuit from the first minute on, Binder scored his best starting position in the premier class to date with P20. Once again, South African had a rocket start and made up three positions on the first lap. But after he crashed under yellow flag in FP3 yesterday, he had to do a long lap in the third lap of the race, which threw him back to P22. But in only one lap he managed to recover three places again, had a solid pace and therewith came closer and closer until he even passed his Yamaha colleague Franco Morbidelli on the final lap to see the chequered flag in 16th, finishing on the rookies podium again.

On the other side, Dovizioso didn’t play his cards well in Qualifying on Saturday. In mixed conditions he opted for rain tyres while most of his contenders went out on slicks. Therefore, he had to line up in P26 on home soil. Yet, he recovered some positions at the start, finishing the first lap in P23. In the course of the 23 laps race, he kept his pace and benefited from DNFs in front. The Italian eventually crossed the finish line in 20th position.

In just a few day’s time, the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team will be back in action for the ninth round of 2022 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in Spain.

Darryn Binder

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team

"It was a good race for me. I'm really happy with how things went. I managed to get a good start and in the first couple of laps, I was in quite an alright position. Unfortunately, I had to take a long lap, which lost me a couple of seconds, but I managed to come back in and fight my way up a little bit further. I had quite a good pace throughout the race. I feel like I've made a step forward in the right direction. I've found that front feeling that I was looking for, and I was able to just ride the race like how I wanted and push every lap and be precise. I was really close to the points, I feel like if I didn't have to do the long lap, I would have scored points today. But overall I think I did a good job this weekend."

Andrea Dovizioso

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team

"Today, I was struggling with the speed in the corners. I really didn't have the pace from the first lap, so I couldn't stay with the two Yamahas as that was the plan. I'm very disappointed with that. I couldn't try the hard front tyre in the practice, maybe it was a bit better because they were using that. In any case, I was struggling for not being able to be faster in the way the Yamaha requests it, so it was far from ideal."

Razlan Razali

Founder and Team Principal, WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team

"Well the weekend of round eight in Mugello began with the news of our future plans for the next four years, we are quite excited for this new challenge. For the race, we are extremely happy with the performance of Darryn, we were concerned about his long lap penalty and how he will do thereafter. But he made an amazing start and was in a good position, he made his long lap and only lost 2.5 seconds. He showed his worthiness, competencies, capabilities and most importantly his talent to be competitive and managed to be the second best Yamaha rider in front of Franco Morbidelli. We hope that he will continue this momentum for the next round in Catalunya. We must thank the team especially his Crew Chief, Noe Herrera for being able to give him the setting that he likes on the M1.

"With Andrea, we are simply lost for words in terms of how much he has struggled from qualifying to the race. We will have to sit down and discuss this next week and we need to find ways to turn his season around with 11 rounds to go. We look forward to Barcelona."

Wilco Zeelenberg

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team, Team Manager

"Well, finally a dry Mugello, which we hoped for. The start from Darryn was great as he went straight to P17, but with the long lap, of course he was back in P20. Having him battling with the boys, especially Franco and beating him in the last lap, made the team very proud to see and we celebrated that like a victory. Andrea of course is disappointed, he could not do the mid corner speed as he wanted. At the end of the race, he tried to make a little bit of a stop and go riding with the Yamaha, though we know that's not really the way, but he went a bit faster. We need to work on that and try to get him out of this dip and try to find a better way for him to be faster around the race track. All in all, we are happy with that P16 by Darryn."